Isla Fisher, Tim Minchin and Miranda Tapsell voice Netflix’s high jinks-filled film that condescends to children
The core joke in Netflix’s new animated movie Back to the Outback is that a bunch of talking animals who are supposed to be Australia’s deadliest creatures – including a snake, a scorpion and a crocodile – are actually harmless sweethearts, cruelly misrepresented by their genetics and reputations. The group live at a
Sydney zoo and are led by a shiny blue snake named Maddie (voiced by Isla Fisher), who is terribly upset when she hears a child refer to her as a “monster”. How can people be scared of lil ol’ me, she wonders, thrown into an existential crisis. (“Monster? I’m not a monster … am I?”)
Maddie is consoled by her spiritual counsel, Jackie, a wise, kind, granny-like crocodile (Jacki Weaver) who encourages the group to define themselves not by “the label on your cage” but the one “in your heart”. This is first of many lines to which one might reasonably respond “pass me the barf bag”, another occurring shortly later when Maddie breaks into a gallingly cheesy song, its lyrics culminating with “Let your worries slip away / Tomorrow is a brand new day”.